May 13, 2018

The Ascension of the Lord (in some dioceses)

Mark 16:15-20

Availability to God

Most of us are celebrating Ascension Sunday (unless you live near Boston, Hartford, New York, Newark, Philadelphia, or Omaha where the dioceses have not moved the holy day of obligation from Thursday). Ascension gets put a week before Pentecost, which is traditionally considered the birth of the Church. But I think the Ascension and the simultaneous missioning of the Apostles can also be considered the Church’s genesis. As Jesuits, we are supposed to be disposed to go at a moment’s notice wherever we are needed. This aspect of our spirituality is grounded in availability to God, a spiritual virtue we all need in our own lives.

How can you be more attuned to the call of God in your life? Where have you perhaps become deaf to God’s voice?

—Fr. Philip Sutherland, SJ, is a priest of the USA West Province and doctoral student in philosophy at Marquette University.

Prayer

Gladden us with holy joys, almighty God, and make us rejoice with devout thanksgiving, for the Ascension of Christ your Son is our exaltation, and, where the Head has gone before in glory, the Body is called to follow in hope. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

—Collect prayer for the Feast of the Ascension